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Ladies and gentlemen, Mount Hood is home to the world famous original ‘Overlook’ hotel from the classic horror movie ‘The Shining’! Yes, that was our most pleasant discovery in preparation for the fantastic ANG F-15 Eagle day. We’ve had the pleasure to welcome the 123rd FS from the Portland Air National Guard for the first time in 2023, when we flew the Skyvan for the Abbotsford airshow in Canada. At that time, they joined the photoship with their legacy F-15C models, but for this project we had something special awaiting us.



The unit was one of the first to receive the brand new F-15EX Eagle, and we had the big privilege to fly a photomission with their new jets, in their home state of Oregon. The ‘Redhawks’ wanted to make it super special for all the photographers onboard the Skyvan, as they planned a two-ship for the new F-15EX, AND as an additional ‘surpriiiise’ one of the classic C models as well!



The scenery in Oregon is already absolutely fantastic, but being able to fly around Mount Hood as the backdrop for the photoflight made it truly epic. The weather was 100% on our side, a good hour before sunset we saw the three jets approaching us. The speed of the Skyvan was a challenge, as we wanted to start high enough ( meaning our maximum speed will decrease ) to make sure we got the mountain in view. Fortunately we had absolute ace pilots all around us, the 123rd FS gave us a formidable 40 mins. Timing could have not been better, and we really used all of the sunlight available up until the very last rays!! What an amazing flight this was for all of us, the photos will speak for themselves. The new F-15EX model looks super impressive, pilots describe it as a ‘monster’, we agree. This was another fantastic day for our crew and the photographers, hopefully we get to see more Eagle power in the next seasons.